


where you go, i'm going

by inkstainedmemories



Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, lol B), no beta we die like tommy, tbh it could be canon compliant
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-17
Updated: 2021-03-17
Packaged: 2021-03-25 18:13:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,879
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30093105
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inkstainedmemories/pseuds/inkstainedmemories
Summary: Tommy still hasn’t talked properly with Tubbo since their initial reunion a couple of days ago. And that’s fine. Tommy’s fine with the fact that the only sounds he’s heard the past several days are the rain, zombies groaning and his own breathing. He’s not lonely. He isn’t.Tommy’s back from the dead. Tubbo won’t stop following him around. They work it out eventually.
Relationships: No Romantic Relationship(s), Toby Smith | Tubbo & TommyInnit
Comments: 12
Kudos: 345





	where you go, i'm going

**Author's Note:**

> right so when i started writing this tommy hadn’t done his whole “tubbo let's team up again to kill dream” stream so we are just pretending that that hasn’t happened B)
> 
> i'm posting this anon for now bc idk how much i like it rip
> 
> anyway this is basically the tubbo following around tommy everywhere meme but Angst™

Tommy’s farming carrots when he sees Tubbo again.

Well. It’s not really that he sees Tubbo _again_ , in the sense that Tubbo was there for a while, in Tommy’s general vicinity, and then gone at some point. It’s more like Tubbo’s been hovering in Tommy’s peripheral for so long that his brain just sometimes forgets he’s there, like _‘oh yeah, update on that guy. Yeah, still crouching there, nothing’s changed. Keep planting those carrots, big man.’_

And Tommy’s trying hard, really, to keep planting his goddamn carrots in the goddamn newly tilled soil - he’d had to remake his whole farm because apparently Connor’s ‘ownership’ of his house ( _his_ house, Connor had no right to it) hadn’t quite extended to farmland, and all his crops had died. So here he is, planting new carrots in old soil, with his back aching something awful, and with Tubbo staring at him like an idiot a couple meters away.

Tubbo probably thinks he’s well hidden, the prick. He’s perched on the dirt roof of Tommy’s house, legs dangling over the edge. Tommy sighs and uproots a weed, wincing as pain in his shoulder flares in protest; he’s still bruised all over from his time spent with Dream in prison. 

Tommy still hasn’t talked properly with Tubbo since their initial reunion a couple of days ago. And that’s fine. Tommy’s fine with the fact that the only sounds he’s heard the past several days are the rain, zombies groaning and his own breathing. He’s not lonely. He isn’t.

It’s a little bit ironic though, he thinks. To have finally escaped that godawful prison only to be just as alone out here as he was inside it. ( _Maybe even more alone, because at least you had Dream in the prison,_ a voice in his head whispers. He ignores it, and resolutely tills the next patch of soil with extra force.)

If only Tubbo would come up and actually _talk_ to him instead of watching from a distance like Tommy’s made of glass, or some fragile shit like that. If anything, Tommy’s made of much stronger stuff - he made it through wars, his exile, prison, _cold-dark-wilbur?_ and he’s still here, tilling carrots just like he would way back before any of this started. He’s made of fucking obsidian.

Then he thinks of the obsidian-dark walls of the prison, and shudders. Maybe not obsidian. Maybe he’s just flesh and bone like the rest of them. Not that he’s being treated that way anymore.

He straightens up and looks over the rows of freshly-planted carrots approvingly. He turns around to say something to Tubbo, anything, even just _want a carrot?_ It would be far too simple considering all that’s still left unsaid, but it’d do. He’d say anything to get Tubbo to talk to him like he’s normal again. He’d say anything to get anyone to talk to him like he’s normal again.

But when he turns around, Tubbo’s gone. It’s like he was never there in the first place.

——

“I know you’re behind me, Tubbo.”

Out of the corner of his eye, Tommy sees Tubbo freeze. There’s a suspended moment in time where Tommy stills over the flowers he’d been ripping out of the ground and Tubbo looks frantic, eyes darting everywhere but Tommy. Then:

“T- Tommy! What- I was just- uh, fancy seeing you here too!” Tubbo’s voice is overly casual even as he finally looks Tommy in the face. His eyes flicker up and down Tommy’s face and Tommy is hit with the uncomfortable reminder that everybody here still holds him at arm's length. He’s not just TommyInnit anymore, he’s the boy who died and came back from beyond the veil.

Tommy turns to look at Tubbo, unimpressed. “We’re in front of my house. No shit I’m here.”

“No, yeah, I know, I was just… passing by,” Tubbo finishes lamely. 

Tommy sighs. He wants to ask Tubbo why he’s acting so weird, skulking about, following him everywhere and killing nearby mobs before they can do any damage to him. But then he thinks back to the way he’d near jumped out of his skin after taking damage falling off scaffolding the day he got out of prison, and remembers the way Tubbo had watched him then, the same way he was watching him now, like he couldn’t quite believe Tommy was standing there in front of him.

He remembers what Tubbo had said. _‘This is like the second time you’ve done this to me, holy crap.’_

First in exile, then in prison.

How many times is he going to make Tubbo grieve for him? 

So instead of asking, he ignores the ache in his chest and bends back over the flowers, reaching out to yank another one by the roots. He’ll let Tubbo hover a little longer before they talk properly.

But Tubbo doesn’t step away. After a moment, he asks, tentatively, “Why are you pulling up the flowers?”

Tommy grabs hold of another. “Just felt like it,” he grunts, wrenching it from the soil.

Tubbo nods, hesitates. “Ranboo planted those, you know.”

“I don’t care who planted them. I just want them gone.” He tosses the uprooted poppy behind him, reaches out for the next.

“Right, yeah, but he spent a long time planting them all, and I think he’d be sad to see them all gone-”

“Well maybe I don’t want a reminder of my fucking death on my doorstep, do I?” Tommy snaps, savagely yanking a handful of poppies from the dirt.

He immediately regrets speaking up when he sees Tubbo shrink back again. Tommy didn’t mean to make him leave. Not again.

His throat tightens and his eyes sting. The next flower isn’t as easy to pull up. 

Then, there’s a soft thump next to him, and hands close over his and tug, uprooting the flower for him. Tubbo doesn’t say anything. They just work in silence until there’s a mound of flowers between them and an empty patch of grass in front of Tommy’s house.

——

Here’s the problem.

The distance, the silence, the staring - it’d be fine if it was just Tubbo. Tommy’s dealt with Tubbo’s antics long before now and would hopefully be dealing with them long into the future. He even remembers when Tubbo following him around was just a game they would play, Tommy going about his daily business until he spotted Tubbo grinning on the prime path. 

But it wasn’t just Tubbo.

He’d passed by Fundy this morning, who had gulped and hurried past him looking as if he’d seen a ghost. Niki had undercharged him for bread at her bakery. And Sapnap hadn’t threatened his pets once (not that he had any left to threaten).

The real kicker, however, is Ranboo.

“Hey Tommy, have you seen Tubbo around?” Ranboo says, brow creased. “Because, uh, it’s been a couple of days and, well, I just wanna make sure he’s all good.”

Right, they got married. Tommy had been rotting in prison and Tubbo had been _planning weddings._

Tommy opens his mouth to speak, but stops as he sees Ranboo catch sight of something, presumably Tubbo, behind him. An awful look of understanding crosses Ranboo’s face and Tommy feels something twist in his gut. He glares at Ranboo.

Ranboo sees Tommy’s face and awkwardly steps back. “Right, okay, cool. Good to see you, Tubbo, talk soon, yeah?” 

Tommy looks over to Tubbo, who nods twice, quick. “Sure!” It’s painfully awkward. Tommy feels like an asshole; clearly Tubbo’s happier with Ranboo and here Tommy is, just making things more complicated.

Ranboo nods back. “Good talk, good talk,” he mutters. Tommy blinks and Ranboo’s gone, leaving only purple teleportation particles fizzing in the air.

Tommy whirls on Tubbo. “What the fuck was that about?”

Tubbo wilts. “Tommy-”

“No, listen. Why are you hanging around me so much? You have a fucking _husband_ now, apparently, go and bother him for a change.” It comes out meaner than he means it to, but he’s frustrated. Tommy’s not even Tubbo’s best friend anymore, clearly, and yet Tubbo’s been tailing him like a mournful dog for days now. It makes him feel all prickly, like he’s being observed. He feels prickly and uncomfortable and on edge, and Tubbo _still_ won’t talk to him about anything other than fucking flowers.

“I don’t like him better than you or anything,” Tubbo says staunchly. “You’re both great friends, and he doesn’t mind that I wanna hang with you for a bit. He gets it.”

“What is there to even get? Why can’t you just- just give me a breather, or something? I don’t need you following me everywhere, it’s not-”

“You were dead!” Tubbo shouts, and the world around them falls quiet. 

Tommy swallows. “I- what?”

“You were dead,” Tubbo says, quieter but just as forceful, “and you had no lives left. I thought you were _gone,_ I thought I was never going to see you again. And then, you- you were here, and you were back, and I just-”

“Just what?” Tommy whispers.

“I just don’t want you to go again.” Tubbo looks like he’s about to cry. Tommy feels awful. “I don’t know how you’re back, and I don’t care. It was so horrible when you were gone, Tommy. I don’t want it to happen again, ever.”

Tommy opens his mouth, then closes it. He doesn’t know what to say. Tubbo’s standing in front of him, shoulders hunched, head bowed and arms wrapped around himself. “Shit, Tubbo.”

Tubbo laughs, but it’s watery. “Yeah, sorry. I, uh, I didn’t mean-” and Tommy impulsively wraps him in a hug before his apologies make Tommy cry, too. 

Tubbo makes an aborted sound of surprise and then hugs him back just as tightly. They stand like that for a moment, and then Tommy gently extricates himself. 

“I didn’t mean to sound like I don’t want you around, before. It’s just fucking hard, man- everyone’s treating me weird. Even Sapnap, and I swear he doesn’t even like me. It’s like I’m still dead to everyone. I just wanna go back to how it was before.”

Tubbo looks at him, eyes sympathetic. “I know, big man.” 

Tommy sighs, and he suddenly feels so, so tired. “Alright, well, I’m knackered, so-”

“What if we do something from before?” Tubbo says hopefully. “Something normal?”

Tommy hesitates - he really does want to go and sleep - but Tubbo looks excited for the first time today. So Tommy agrees.

That’s how they end up sitting on the bench, the sun colouring the trees below in oranges and pinks. Cat plays softly from a nearby jukebox, the music weaving into the air around them. Everything is calm; it feels like it used to, staring into the horizon, with what used to be L’Manberg at their backs, as the sun lowers itself into the dark.

 _This is nice,_ Tommy thinks. He can’t remember the last time he felt this at peace.

“You know,” Tubbo starts. “That was pretty clingy of you, hugging me back there.”

Tommy elbows him. “Shut up, dickhead. I’m trying to hear the music.”

Tubbo grins next to him. They sit just like that, shoulder to shoulder, as the sun sets with the promise of a new day. Tommy’s almost looking forward to it.

**Author's Note:**

> if you enjoyed please leave a kudos or comment, they make my day!


End file.
